Algher
December 5, 2016, 6:58pm
99
RickJay:
The Japanese had been told that Americans were little more than savages who, given the chance, would pillage the country and kill everyone, Mongol-style.
MacArthur was, well, rather decidedly not a savage. He ran Japan like a decent man, trying honestly to rebuild the country, improve the lot of its citizenry, and treat its people with respect, so the impression of him was extremely positive not only because he deserved a positive impression, but because it was a much better treatment than most Japanese expected. MacArthur was certainly instrumental in ensuring Emperor Hirohito was allowed to remain on the throne and spared indignity, which did a lot to keep things smooth. MacArthur also got cooperation from the Japanese government institutions by letting them pretty much run themselves, which they understandably appreciated; he was not interested in getting up in their faces about details, and that worked in his favor. So such Japanese authority figures as there were further supported him.
Exacerbating that effect, he opinion of many historians is that the Japanese, at the time very culturally conditioned to think in authoritarian terms, tended to transfer to MacArthur a sort of “surrogate Emperor” hero worship aspect as well - a sort of innate deference to the top authority figure that existed there to an extent it really doesn’t in a Western democracy (and, to be honest, doesn’t exist so much in Japan anymore.)
My grandfather was on Macarthur’s staff (and my dad was raised in Japan for those years). So you had accompanied station, kids interacting, etc. We have several gifts from the royal family due to bridge tournaments my grandparents ran for top US officers and highly placed Japanese guests. So it seems that while it was occupation forces - it was done in a way to fully integrated and part of the community.